Celia Collins

I grew up with The Doors and owned all their albums. I adored them but I had NO IDEA what was happening behind the scenes. This book is a real eye-opener. At times the endless recounting of drug/alcohol crazed events and never ending discontent among the band members is tedious. However, I was taken completely by surprise by a very sad and poignant ending that stayed with me for days and days.

Real Eye Opener!

This book is fascinating if you studied film in the '70's or are a film buff. We idolized these guys, analyzed their movies with great seriousness, intently picked apart all the details, wrote papers on them...hearing the back story here completely floored me. All these guys are people just like us, only they were given free reign to go berserk professionally, financially and many times personally. I adored this book, I laughed out loud all the way through it. An amazing bunch of guys (and a few of the wives and girlfriends stand out too), they made movies I've never stopped loving, but this book did me a favor and brought them out of my college days' perceived god status of them and brought them down to earth.

Yes, just as good. He is only suited for a certain type of book and this is definitely one of them!

Way too long to do that but I HATED to finally reach the end. In theory, yes.

I wasn't thrilled with the reading. Except in very rare cases, I prefer that men don't go to great ends to sound like women and vice versa, This reader's renditions of the more eccentric masculine characters sound kind of ridiculous. On the other hand, when she is simply reading, her voice is perfect for the story and the mood of the book, which I very much enjoyed.

I'm giving this a high rating because I think the story is wonderful. I did however have a terrible time getting used to the insane use of "other voices" for the women and the main character as a child. Absolutely horrible!! A straightforward reading by this narrator would have been fine, he is a very good reader. There was no need for this ridiculous idea of creating some kind of theatre. As one reader mentioned, the women all come across as spineless simps whether they are noble or not. Such a shame for such a long and wonderful book!

Really interesting to hear because more than half of the people profiled are not the most well known cases. Kind of horrifying, as well, as these people are held high as role models by many because of what they say (and not because of what they do...).

A beautifully written book and read perfectly by
John Lee. Of the many, many books I have listened to, this is up at the top (along with The Forsyth Saga).

This book's characters just jump out of the narration, it's absolutely wonderful. James' understanding of a certain female character is uncanny. I adored this book and was so sorry when it ended!

It took me a while to get into this book, it is relentlessly grim - BUT the four main characters eventually steal your heart. After I finished the book, it took me days before I shook off it's sad mood. The book is also an interesting window on India's upheavals in the 70's. The writing is so vivid, often you feel you are right there with the characters. A fantastic book.

From the first moment, I was transported back into another time by this very long and very poignant story. I know someone has complained bitterly about the reader, but I found the monitone reading perfectly suited the tone of the story. Of every book I've listened to, this is by far and away my favorite.

If you love food, and it helps too if you're a fan of Gourmet magazine, you'll find this is a magical book. Beautifully read as well.

I highly recommend this to anyone. The individual stories of those caught in this disaster draw you right in alongside them and the story itself unfolds better than the best fiction. The reader is excellent, I think this is one of the few books which is better heard than read. I live in New Orleans and listened to this book while an evacuee in Houston after Hurricane Katrina. For anyone who has lived through Katrina and its aftermath, this book will have special relevance on many levels. This book is so good I plan to buy a copy of it as well. (It says I am in California but that is our mailing address - U.S. mail is still a disaster here in New Orleans. We have all our mail sent to California and then forwarded to us by UPS (which works)).